Do You Bicycle? Dedicated to the proposition that bike riding is good for you & fun. Commentary, links, news, opinion, reviews, stories, travelogue, & occasional heads up about events. Kiril Kundurazieff spreads the word & the word is BICYCLE!

March 01, 2010

About Bicycling Readers Share How Cycling Changed Their Lives

A bike is a simple machine, but it almost seems to have magical powers . . . an amazing ability to literally change people's lives. It's a device that's good for getting to school or buzzing around town, sure. But a bike is also something that can restore health, restore sanity, reduce traffic and help the planet in the process.

If you have a powerful story to share about how bicycling changed your life, we'd love to hear it.

July 16, 2009

Owning More than 1 Bike Cheaper than Yachting or Cocaine? Well, I'll be!

The Ethical Living Blog Discusses those folks who own more than 1 bike, and we are talking at least 1 for each season. ;-D

Peter Walker writes:

To my slight shame, I now own four bikes, something that mystifies not only non-cycling friends but those, my girlfriend among them, who happily make do with a single bike. To me, it makes perfect sense: I have a mountain bike, a road bike, and an older, slightly scruffier bike I use for commuting and leaving locked up around London. The fourth, a single-speed machine fashioned from an old road frame, is perhaps an indulgence, but it is at least on long-term loan to a friend.

April 14, 2009

Bike Commuting and Walking: Survey Finds Folks Make Excuses Not To

Researchers with Kansas State University's Physical Activity and Public Health Laboratory, have discovered a few things from two surveys, administered in 2008, which interviewed 1200 people (800 of them from the college), looking at demographics, psychosocial factors and environmental characteristics related to active commuting.

Of the college folks:

Students were most likely to actively commute, then faculty members, and then staff. Women and men were equally interested in walking or biking. Older individuals were less likely to actively commute than younger individuals.

Depending on distance to campus, those living within a 20-minute walk actively commuted four times per week, and those within a 20-minute bike ride, biked to campus five times per week.

"We learned from the community survey results that people who hold ecologically-friendly attitudes are more likely to actively commute and less likely to drive to work,"...

Some of the hindrances to active commuting, according to the surveys, included a perceived lack of bike racks, showers or a place to freshen up before work or teaching, and an "office culture" where driving to work is the norm and there is limited support for walking or biking.

Respondents also listed time constraints, weather, a need to go elsewhere before or after work or school; parking availability; parking costs; concerns about the environment, such as pollution; cost of gasoline; safety from traffic and crime; and the terrain they have to traverse.

This is a very interesting article, and the full thing can be read at SCIENCE BLOG.

Maybe it's just me, a guy that has never owned a car in his life, and walked, biked, bused, trained, or planed, everywhere he goes, except when with family or friends who have a car, but the more someone unsure they want to ditch the car thinks about reasons they shouldn't, the harder it might be for them to take the plunge.

August 26, 2008

National Journal Reports on Influence Pedaling at Dem Convention

On Sunday the influential political magazine/website National Journal had a lengthy advance report on the goings on in denver this week.

The best part of the report, for bicyclists anyway, was buried halfway into the piece, by reporter Randy Barrett:

Can't find a taxi? No worries. The convention host committee and Humana have partnered with Bikes Belong, a nonprofit bicycling-advocacy group, to bring 1,000 bikes to Denver this week.

At no cost, delegates, locals, and other convention-goers can check out a bicycle at one of seven bike kiosks in and around the downtown area starting on Monday. Helmets and water will also be available.

Anyone who registers online at freewheelinwaytogo.com or at one of the kiosks can pick up a bike beginning at 7 a.m., and return it to a station by 10 p.m. the same day. The stations are easily identifiable by their blue tents with the letter "F" for "freewheelin" on top.

The largest supply of bikes (275) is on 14th Street, between Wynkoop and Wewatta, just off the Pepsi Center site near the Invesco Field light-rail station. Another station is at the Denver Art Museum, and one is across the street from the convention center, where many delegation events will take place.

Anyone really, truly, interested in the REST of the report can find it here. ;-D

January 20, 2008

A Hearty Thanks to Carnival of the Vanities

Over the years I've submitted posts for acceptance in the Granddaddy of all Blog Carnivals, the Carnival of the Vanities, and its various hosts have thus helped get the word out to the wider Blogosphere about our Niche.

It had been a while since my last submission, so I figured that my 5th Anniversary post would be a good place to make a return. ;-D

I wish to thank Andrew Ian Dodge, of Dodgeblogium, the current Keeper of the Flame, for including me in a recent Carnival.

November 29, 2007

From City Bike to Lowrider in Nothing Flat

It's called the SwitchBike.

The bicycle can be used in two different settings: 1) as the "Old Faithful" city bike, 2) as a lowrider. Switching from one setting to the other is done by turning the left handle on the steering wheel.

Created by Ron de Jong, this baby is a fascinating two-fer that would appear to make a good commuter bike, as well as a class 1 trail ride, here in Orange County, on our river and mountain to sea trails.

According to Fresh Creation Blog, the creator is still looking for a company to put this baby into production.

June 19, 2007

PedalPub Roars onto American Streets

The ever popular pub crawl has evolved for the 21st Century, and this Cylist, and fitness-minded, friendly activity has made it's way to Minnesota.

I learned of this from James Lileks, in his Blog in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the greatest manifestations of Dutch technology to hit our shores: the Pedal Pub. The owners are petitioning the city to let them drive this thing around the lakes, which would be fun. Unless you’re behind them.

Born in The Netherlands the concept has now come to America, and seems to be getting a lot of attention, and popularity.

This blog was written from SanTana, Near the Orange Crush!More Stimulating BikeBlogging!

Proud to have been one of the BEST BikeBlogs in the USA, and the World: Jan. 2003 -Aug. 2010!

Do You Bicycle? Dedicated to the proposition that bike riding is good for you and fun. Commentary, links, news, opinion, reviews, stories, travelogue, and occasional heads up about events. An ordinary road cyclist spreads the word and the word is BICYCLE!

Dear Visitor: Most of the Cycling Resource Links that used to be in this sidebar are now on my other Blog, where I will continue writing about my adventures as a Bicyclist:Musings of a Mad Macedonian

AND LAST, BUT NOT LEAST...THE GREATEST HONOR THIS BLOG HAS EVER RECEIVED IN ITS HISTORY:

Nov. 12, 2010:

Thank you for honoring the shop I have grown up in and love. We are still an old time shop but are trying to keep up with the times with the Kopp's Cycle Website -- Charles Kuhn - Owner (Comment left here: Kopp's Selling Bikes since 1891 - A story I posted in March 2005, and he also replied to my Thanks with this: "You seem to be someone who experiences life while the rest of us just live."

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